“Frackademia” is usually thought of as “studies” conducted by university-based “frackademic” researchers and funded by Big Oil, the old “Tobacco Playbook[5]” in action. But UT-Knoxville has taken the game to a whole new level, leasing off land it owns so that it can study “best practices[6]” for fracking in the Volunteer State.

“It would create a rare, controlled environment in which experts could study the environmental impact of the controversial drilling technique, while also generating revenue to finance research,” explained aNew York Times[7] article on the proposal[7].

“If Tennessee is going to be a leader in the knowledge economy of the 21st century, it must have a great flagship university,” Jim Haslam said in a press release at the time[32]. “We cannot go from good to great without increasing fundraising, and my hope would be that this gift would put the spotlight on philanthropy and the University of Tennessee’s tremendous potential to become a great university.”

The Haslam family is set to cash in on the arrangement, coinciding - perhaps not coincidentially - with ongoing UT System budget cuts. After all, the cuts doled out by Haslam serve as the rationale for the necessity of new revenue streams like fracking on UT-Knoxville's portion of the Cumberland Forest. A business opportunity, if you will.

Given the Haslam family's industry connections, the statement is unsurprising. In addition to the family ties, the emails also show one of the key behind-the-scenes pushers of fracking on UT-Knoxville's Cumberland Forest land was Bryan Kaegl.

Kaegl is a high-level Tennessee GOP campaign consultant who worked on mass mailings[41] for Bill Haslam's 2010 gubernatorial campaign. According to Persuasian Partners[42], one of his numerous gigs, that mass malling spree ”included eleven unique mail pieces that totaled 2,687,748 pieces and 4 phases of robocalls for a total of 504,311 contacts.”

He posited that it's crucial for industry[46] to “seek out academic studies and champion with universities - because that again provides tremendous credibility to the overall process.”

What's different about UT-Knoxville, though - laying bare the veneer of “credibility” - is the Haslam family ties to the University, the executive chamber, the U.S Senate, and the industry itself. In other words, it's the “frackademia playbook” with a twist.